How Much Do Apps spend on CPI Campaigns

About 2 weeks ago a friend asked me how much do app companies spend on getting app installs – what’s the average cost per install campaign size. He was pretty happy with the answer I gave him and the research I referred him to so I thought I would share the answer.

Concentration in cost per install campaigns

First, you have to realize that the average spend is really irrelevant here due to strong concentration in the market. According to eMarketer there were $4.6 billions spent on App Install campaigns in the US during 2015. You can assume that the numbers are 2x if you look at the global market so $9.2B. The reality is that the top companies are doing a big chunk of that. You can look at the public companies to get a sense of that:

Zynga spent $169M on Marketing in 2015

King spent $344M in 2015

Glu’s marketing spend was $45M in 2014

The rumor is that Machine Zone and Supercell are spending close to $500M each on cost per install campaigns. The real answer is that the distribution is estimated as:

Raised in the Kibbutz and reborn in the city, Yaniv is a certified entre-parent-neur. When he’s not busy doing SEO, content marketing, administration, QA, fund raising, customer support… [stop to breathe], you can find Yaniv snowboarding down the slopes of France and hiking with his kids.
Yaniv holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science and Management from Tel Aviv University. He is also an avid blogger and a speaker at industry events. Before SOOMLA, Yaniv co-founded EyeView and INTENTClick.